Fiction Scribe

As I mentioned yesterday, this past Sunday I had the honor of having brunch with Dr. Gillian Polack of Food History who was in Melbourne for a writer’s convention.

Yesterday I talked about meeting with Gillian with regards to networking and getting your name out there as a way to become known in the writing community. Today I’ll talk about the non-networking benefits of meeting other writers.

Mr. Scribe calls it cross-fertilization, I’ve heard it called everything from idea exchange to filling up the inspiration tank…

As could only be expected, our conversation came to the subject of Gillian’s books. I sat there, fascinated as she talked about the hidden messages she put in her work that you would know if you knew well enough. She talked about fun and creative ways to kills characters, drawing on an old folk story about the cheating wife of a man who killed her lover.

The husband punishes both the lover and the wife, ironically giving her what she most desired in a form which destroys her and her lover. Forced by her husband to eat her lover’s heart unknowingly, the wife becomes the victim of a secret, transgressive and violent act.

- Themes and Motifs

I was thrilled as she recounted the tale to me because I hadn’t heard it for ages. She went on to talk about how she had used the story to her own end, and I responded with tales of killing my own characters.

A gruesome conversation to passersby, but thrilling for me. There’s nothing quite like talking to another writer face-to-face, especially a writer who is passionate about his/her writing.

Her talking about how she killed her characters got me thinking about different alternatives to how to kill my characters - which I’ll be doing a bit of in the novel I’m working on. The conversation also encouraged me to start looking into something I hadn’t looked into in a long time - folk tales.

This exchange of ideas, cross-fertilization, is probably one of the best, fastest ways to get inspired that you could possibly think of. I’m not saying you should copy your fellow writers, but feed off their passion, take their tips and tricks to heart, and make all of it your own.

Personally, I haven’t been quite so enthused about killing a character in a long time. Use it or lose it, right?